Idris was the great-grandchild of
Hasan, who was the son of
Fatima and
Ali and grandson of the Islamic prophet,
Muhammad. He was born and raised in
Arabia. His paternal half-brothers
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and Ibrahim had been killed by the
Abbasids during an
abortive rebellion. His brother
Yahya rose in revolt in
Daylam, but was forced to surrender. He was persecuted by
Caliph Harun al-Rashid thereafter, and repeatedly imprisoned. Idris himself had participated (along with Yahya) in another
Alid uprising in 786, under
al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Abid. After the revolt's defeat at the
Battle of Fakhkh, he escaped and remained in hiding, before moving to
Egypt. Assisted by the local head of the caliphal
postal system,
Wadih, he managed to leave Egypt and reach the
Maghreb. In 789, he arrived in
Tangier before going to
Walīlī, the site of the
Roman Volubilis. Here his headquarters have been discovered in recent excavations conducted by the Moroccan Institute of Archaeology (INSAP) and
University College London. The headquarters lies just outside the walls of the Roman town, which was then occupied by the
Berber tribe of the
Awraba, under Ishaq ibn Muhammad. He married
Kenza, of the
Awraba, fathering a son,
Idris II. This event is considered a consolidation and the birth of the Idrisid dynasty, the fourth Muslim State in Morocco after
Nekor (710–1019),
Barghawata (744–1058), and
Midrar (757–976). Idris I conquered large parts of northern Morocco and founded the city of
Fez. In 789 AD, he captured
Tlemcen (in modern-day
Algeria) from the
Sufrite
Ifranid Abu Qurra which became part of the kingdom. This succession of events prompted vengeance from the Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid, who sent emissaries to kill him. Idris I died in 791 in Walīlī, allegedly poisoned by the caliph's agents. His son, Idris II, was born a few months later and brought up by the Awraba under the
regency of Rashid, his father's
freedman (
mawla) and advisor. Idris I's body was buried on a hill not far from Walīlī. The site of his tomb grew into a village known as
Moulay Idriss Zerhoun. A
zawiya (religious complex) centered around his mausoleum developed here over the centuries and remains an important religious site in Morocco today. ==See also==